POLITICAL THEORY IN MIDDLE AGES       23
the level of a modern profiteer. The sparrow-hawk
patrolling the hedges and swooping on his prey is non-
moral ; he is conforming to the law of his being. But,
the merchant patrolling the markets and swooping on
his particular and equally helpless prey is immoral ;
he is outraging the law of his being. He confesses this
in so far as he always pretends that his conduct is
quite the reverse and that he is really benefiting his
victim hugely. But our aim is to create not a non-
moral community, virtuous by undisputed habit, and
certainly not an immoral community, rejecting virtue
wittingly ; our goal is the moral community, where men
know the" right and the wrong and pursue the right.
This obviously is a higher ideal, and opens out far more
possibilities for humanity than the notion of a naturally
perfect community which never looks upon error because
its instinctive virtue is utterly blind.
The danger, then, of the theory of Natural Law is that
in its quite justifiable criticism of what we call progress
it may go too far and decry the merits of choice. We,
with all our attainments and our reflection, could do
far better than the savages who live largely by instinct,
if only we used our gifts aright. But we have failed
miserably in our task and allowed all our talents to be
prostituted to money-getting, and the machines, which
were to be our servants, have become our masters.
Hence we are being carried headlong on the runaway
horse of Progress, and it seems most unlikely that our
destination is Utopia. It is this failure which Natural
Law drives home to our minds, and that is why Natural
Law is always the basis of revolutionary political
thought. Man is by nature good, and society should be
a blessed union of peace ; but somehow man is bad and
society has become a miserable farrago of strife and
emulation. Why is that ? Because man has ceased to